JUNE 2020

This edition of Sustain is a particularly special one for us. Firstly, we want to say “thank you” for your support, especially at this turbulent time, as it means a great deal to us and the communities we serve. Like our

brothers and sisters working around the world, we are in an unprecedented season as we face COVID-19. Thank you for your prayers and your support of these communities.

As always, we remain in close contact with our project partners, our Sisters and the communities we support in the field. Our partners are finding it very difficult as projects have had to close, causing the communities great suffering. Suffering is here in Australia and in every country we support. Some communities have had to shift their focus to concentrate on providing food aid while suspending other projects.

In this edition, we share with you some of the pandemic impact on our projects. When hearing from our Sisters what has particularly stood out, is their flexibility, resilience and ability to rise above the circumstances. Simply by being in a developing country, our project partners, time and time again, encounter challenges beyond their control but they refuse to be defeated. You will read stories that have you experiencing the beauty and the hardships encountered by our Sisters. Their hope and their response to those in need is inspirational. They, however, can’t, and shouldn’t, do this alone. The pandemic has proven we are, in essence, ‘one world’ and can, through our actions, have an impact on each other every day. Now we need to take a further step and partner together to ensure we assist those who are in the greatest need.

Enjoy reading this Sustain and know that by supporting and caring for others you encourage resilience and hope. The MWIA Team sends heartfelt thanks and prayers to you and your families. Warmly,

Kim Nass Executive Officer

Welcome to Sustain

Mary Ward International Australia 32

ReflectionMessage from the EO 3

Global Project Snapshot 4Supporting empowering projects

Education for Change 6By Michelle McCarty

Special Feature: COVID-19 8COVID-19’s impact on MWIA global projects

Project Updates 9Progress from across the globe

Welcoming All 10By Sr Libby Rogerson ibvm

Special Feature: Morgan 11A life changed for generations

The Call to Africa 12An interview with Sr Elizabeth Donnan ibvm

“If you are not on the table, you could be on the menu” 14By Sr Janet Palafox ibvm

Donate Today 16The most vulnerable children need us now more than ever

CONTENTS

This pandemic has produced many words… about health and happinessabout wealth and welfareabout isolation and inspiration.

The favourite word of all:‘unprecedented’!

And yet, for so many in our world… unemployment, limited resources,lack of freedom, illness, death...are daily common realities.

Let us re-direct our energy, intelligence, compassion and resources to shape a new normal, a Gospel-vision where the hungry are filled with good things and the rich sent empty away

– the Magnificat.

With Mary Ward,may our favourite words become:freedom, justice, integrity, truth and joy!

May we be sustained by hervision of just relationships andGod-gifted dignity for all.

~ by Anne Muirhead

2 Sustain June 2020Sustain

COVER*Happy students at the opening ceremony of new toilet blocks at the A Phu Hoi Primary School, An Giang Province, Vietnam.

ABOUT US Mary Ward International Australia is a registered charity and is the Australian and global development organisation of the Loreto Sisters. Our Mission is to support the development works associated with the Loreto Sisters and their colleagues as they empower women to transform structures and systems that keep them oppressed and marginalised.

MARY WARD INTERNATIONAL AUSTRALIAPO Box 4082, Auburn South, VIC 3122 Ph: 03 9813 4023 E: mwiaustralia@loreto.org.au www.mwia.org.au B V F

Executive Officer: Kim Nass Ph: 0418 419 706 E: kim.nass@loreto.org.auArt Direction: Les Hallack Creative

MWIA acknowledges the traditional

custodians of this country and offer our respect to the elders past, present and future for they hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of Aboriginal Australia.

ACCOUNTABILITY AND ACCREDITATIONMWIA is a full member of the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID). We are committed and fully adhere to the ACFID Code of Conduct, managing our work with transparency, accountability and integrity. MWIA is an approved organisation under the Overseas Aid Gift Deduction Scheme (OAGDS) and endorsed by the Australian Taxation Office as a Deductible Gift Recipient.

TICK OF CHARITY REGISTRATION (REGISTERED CHARITY TICK)

VISUAL BRAND GUIDELINES

VERSION 1.0 NOVEMBER 2016

*Consent for all imagery of children and young people used in this publication has been received.

TOTAL PROJECT DISTRIBUTIONS:

AustraliaIndiaKenyaPhilippinesTimor-LesteVietnamZambiaSouth SudanPeru

PROJECTS 2019-2020 DONATION NEED

AUSTRALIA :

Eliminating Forced Marriage (ACRATH)Staff in 40 schools in WA, QLD and VIC and 27 Clergy Members in Melbourne and Sydney trained to identify girls at risk of forced marriage.

SOUTH SUDAN:

Loreto Rumbek: Dress for Success ProjectNew uniforms provided for 300 secondary school students and 1167 primary school students.

KENYA:

Nyumbani Scholarship ProgrammeTwo candidates supported to attend college to receive tertiary diplomas in Social Work and Guidance Counselling.

Z AMBIA:

Baby Milk ProjectAn additional small grant will be sent to enable Loreto Sisters to distribute 140 food and hygiene hampers to vulnerable families.Babies have been supplied with a double quantity of milk to allow for an extended period of isolation.

INDIA :

Kolkota Mary Ward Social Centre Food has been supplied to over 400 families out of work due to the COVID-19 pandemic closing the Brickfields.

Collective VoicesOver 500 food parcels have been distributed to out of work tea garden workers while the tea plantations are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

Global SnapshotAUSTRALIA :

• Eliminating Forced Marriage (ACRATH) | $33,001

• HOW Right Bite Program | $15,317

INDIA :

• Darjeeling Mary Ward Social Centre | $25,001

• Kolkota Mary Ward Social Centre| $51,757

KENYA:

• Termination of FGM | $28,920

• Nyumbani Tertiary Scholarships | $4,440

PERU:

• Tailoring Project | $8,000

PHILIPPINES:

• Balay Banaag: Skills for Life | $20,000

SOUTH SUDAN:

• Loreto Rumbek: Dress for Success | $48,020

TIMOR-LESTE:

• Ostico: Advancing Agri-Business | $97,148

• Ostico Review | $49,000

IBVM V IETNAM:

• Children’s Libraries | $700

• John XXIII Training Scholarship | $5,000

LORETO V IETNAM:

• Education for Change | $43,850.75

Z AMBIA:

• Lukulu Teacher Training | $21,600

• Baby Milk Project | $14,480

• Ultrasound | $22,200

• Vehicle Purchase | $91,000

• Vehicle Support | $9,960

• Lunch Feeding program | $11,496

Sustain June 2020 Mary Ward International Australia4 5

On the door of a classroom at the Can Thanh Special School in the mangrove rich Cân Giò

district of Southern Vietnam, there is a poem. The poem is entitled titled Cô Giáo - Beloved Teacher.

In Vietnamese culture and tradition, the role of a teacher is highly valued. On annual Teachers Day, November 20, many people carry out the custom of visiting or writing to their former teachers and expressing their gratitude for the inspiration, encouragement and advice this significant person gave to them. The right to and the gift of an education is celebrated by the whole community and the title “Cô”, as teachers are called in Vietnamese, is one of admiration and respect.

Mary Ward International Australia (MWIA), focuses on supporting these teachers, their students and communities through the work of Loreto Vietnam.

Loreto Vietnam was founded in 1997 by Sr Trish Franklin ibvm. Sr Trish’s vision, as a passionate and gifted teacher herself, was to work to ‘lift up the learners’ of Vietnam,

particularly those disadvantaged by disability or poverty. Today, Loreto Vietnam operates under the guidance of an Advisory Board and the energetic leadership of Executive Officer, Mr Nguyen Viet Dung, and his dedicated staff.

Loreto Vietnam continues to focus on bringing about ‘education for change’. As a Loreto organis-ation this core belief of Sr Trish, Dung and all who have worked with them, reflects the commitment of Mary Ward people to ensuring that the right to an education, and to the dignity, respect and flourishing it brings, is accessible to all children, particularly those who are most vulnerable.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal No. 4 ‘quality education’ underpins these efforts of Loreto Vietnam, with the complementary aim of building capacity in the school communities. Focusing on creating effective learning environments and lifelong learners, they manage over 20 current and future projects.

Environments are improved through the refurbishment of rural school toilet blocks from broken, dank and limited outhouses, into clean, bright and private facilities where students learn the skills of communal hygiene. Friendly libraries, filled with new books, add to the learning environments of poor rural communities, as have small computer labs, enabling teachers to run STEM classes in these schools.

Special education training for the teachers of children with both intellectual and physical disabilities has been a focus for Loreto Vietnam, as well as supporting the equitable access of these learners in special schools. School packs, including resources required to make the best of the academic day, are ongoing projects that make a practical difference to these young learners. The welcome provision of bicycles to transport school kids around rural areas benefits their whole family.

Cô Thu, the warm, wise and wonderful principal of the Can Thanh Special School, is the type of teacher and leader any school would love. Her dreams for her special students and her dedicated work every day on behalf of these children and their families ensures her Teachers Day each year is full of tributes.

Loreto Vietnam has supported the Can Thanh School for many years, providing uniforms, health insurance, a school bus, refurbished playground equipment, a play therapy room and teacher professional development to improve the educational outcomes of their students. In 2018 the Can Thanh community moved to a brand-new school site with spacious classrooms, greater resources and a big new yard for exercise, assemblies and a garden. Cô Thu and her staff beamed with pride and delight during a recent visit. This education for her students, who have special needs and come from poor local families, is lifting them high into the future.

Education for Change

~ by Michelle McCarty

Loreto Vietnam

Beloved TeacherThe teacher of mine

Likes to dance and smile.She shares funny tales,

Songs and lullabies, Also many games, That all of us like.

We’re attached to her All throughout the days.

In a recent letter Loreto Vietnam EO Dung wrote;

….Loreto Vietnam has a strong belief that the most affordable, accessible and sustainable (way) is EDUCATION. The global pandemic enables Loreto Vietnam a short break to deep dive into what has been done for 23 years in Vietnam and start an intensive process to refresh and upgrade our coming strategy. The new approach will aim to enable access to better education, improve educational outcomes and promote special education.

During this critical time, Loreto Vietnam also feels grateful for a chance to reflect on how meaningful it is to live in a greater Loreto family, with the same core values and dignity which urges each of us to go out more into the world, to get to know, to really understand and actually support those most in need, especially our vulnerable children, women and communities.

Through MWIA we have the chance to continue to go out into the world in solidarity with the work of Loreto Vietnam and support teachers like Cô Thu to help change the world of their students.

Sustain June 2020 Mary Ward International Australia 76

Loreto Vietnam primary students excited about their new school.

Happy Students from Loreto Vietnam’s Binh Minh ‘Sunrise’ School.

~ by Michelle Gale

Sustain June 2020 Mary Ward International Australia

RUMBEK, SOUTH SUDAN

The installation of a solar pumped water and power system at the Loreto Primary Health Care Centre in Rumbek has improved the hygiene and security of the clinic, allowing for internal water taps, flushing toilets and saving staff from fetching water from other locations.Refrigeration means cold storage vaccines are now housed in the clinic increasing immunisations in local children. Electrical diagnostic equipment can now be used, supporting increased accuracy and speed in diagnoses.

“The installation of solar power has really made our work much easier in the clinic as nurses. Because of the presence of electricity as nurses we can attend to emergencies in the evening hours or night which is a great advantage.” ~ Nurse, Ms Gloria

98

The Covid-19 impact on MWIA global projects

In recent months the COVID-19 pandemic has touched every corner of our world. The communities and work of MWIA and our project partners are

severely impacted. Here, we share some of their recent experiences. A reminder that, more than ever, we are interconnected members of the Mary Ward family.

The Kolkata Mary Ward Social Centre in India coordinates several critical projects with the support of MWIA. One major project is the running of more than 15 local schools for children of migrant workers in the brickfields. The open-air factories where clay bricks are handmade have shut down and these workers have lost their livelihood. With no available transport, they cannot return to their native regions and remain stranded at the brickfields. The KMWSC team mobilised its network to distribute rice, dal (lentils), potatoes and salt to 400 families in 4 Brickfield schools. With the advent of COVID-19, the Darjeeling Mary Ward Social Centre, India, has seen dramatic changes. Their successful Collective Voices program focuses on empowering women, particularly in the areas of gender and labour rights. Many of these women work on the tea plantations of West Bengal which have now closed. The region is in lockdown leaving the traditional workers without money for food. They rely on the good works of organisations like the DMWSC to provide food relief for their families.

Loreto Rumbek in South Sudan sadly had to close its school doors in late March for the first time since it opened in 2008. Following government orders, the girls returned to their families across the country for at least 4 weeks. The health clinic at Loreto Rumbek remains open and recent school graduates who trained as nurses and health care volunteers are engaged in educating the local community on staying safe from coronavirus. During April, this health team reached 3000 people (mostly women) at various water collecting points. They taught the community social distancing, hand washing, the use of the flexed elbow when coughing and avoiding handshaking. COVID-19 cases in South Sudan are thankfully, very few - a good news story at this time!

LUKULU, ZAMBIAThe new ultrasound machine in Lukulu, funded jointly by MWIA and Kindermissionwerk (Germany), continues to benefit the community with radiographers examining 20-25 patients daily. Accurate diagnoses have improved thanks to the new machine’s increased image resolution. The attachments on the new machine enable a greater range of investigation of issues such as thyroid problems or hernias which were not possible on the older machine. Happily, the maternity ward is also making good use of the ultrasound during prenatal care in the hope of improving baby and maternal mortality rates in the local region.

OSTICO, TIMOR-LESTEAiming to improve income opportunities and employment in Timor-Leste, the Agri-Business Project supported the purchase of farming equipment, including a tractor, for the villages of Ostico and Gari-Uai. The tractor arrived in Ostico in January and was blessed in a February celebration. According to our in-country partner, it has been booked by local farmers since then. Farmers are anticipating improved productivity thanks to the tractor increasing both the quality and quantity of the produce they grow, including corn, sweet potato and tomatoes. The local agricultural school has organised training for effective use of the tractor and the community have expressed gratitude and excitement for the opportunities the tractor will create.

Ultrasound Upgrade

Agri-Business

Solar Panels

PROJECT UPDATESThe Balay Banaag residential children centre in the Philippines is a program providing care and support for the female children of women working as prostitutes to forge an income for themselves and their children. Strict quarantine restrictions mean that social workers, educators and even the children’s mothers can no longer attend the centre, leaving the Marist Sisters to tend to the children’s daily needs.

Many children are considered vulnerable and do not have a place they call home. Mothers with homes have requested that their children stay at the centre as their presence makes prostitution difficult and puts the children in precarious situations.

Enterprising Loreto Sisters in Timor-Leste, Aithien and Margie, are producing face masks to protect the health of locals in Gari-uai. The proceeds provide food supplies for the community.

Nyumbani Village in Kenya is a leader in the care of people living with HIV/AIDS, including orphans and vulnerable children. MWIA currently provides tertiary education scholarships for youth from the village. The village which began in 2004, supports 981 orphans and 100 grandparents and carers impacted by AIDS. With their expertise, they prepared the communities they serve for the full impact of COVID-19. To be successful, all staff, children and families served by the Nyumbani Programs need personal protective equipment (PPE) for the duration of the COVID-19. They require more masks as additional medical needs arise, and food insecurity brings instability to the most vulnerable in the village.

MWIA’s goal in vulnerable global communities is to support disadvantaged people as the coronavirus spreads. The devastation we see in Australia is heartbreaking - families losing loved ones, whole industries crashing to a halt and long lines at Centrelink. We are grateful for the work of our leaders and government, providing stimulus and funds to lessen the impact. However, we must not forget that those situated in our MWIA global projects have no safety nets or government resources. The health, social and economic challenges faced by the worldwide community will seriously affect families living in poverty. We thank you for your support of our global MWIA projects at this crucial time.

Loreto Rumbek students preparing to study from home.

Radiographer, Kelvin Mwaba examining a patient.

Ultrasound images are now able to detect a greater range of health concerns.

Images: Hospital workers using the new solar powered pump to wash hospital

equipment.

Blessing of the tractor at Ostico.

Sustain June 2020 Mary Ward International Australia1110

MorganA life changed for generations

~ by Sr Elizabeth Donnan ibvm

I first met Morgan when he made his living being a paddler of a dugout canoe. This canoe was owned by someone else and he had to pay for the privilege of using it. This left him with very little money to live, even though he was

working long days transporting people. What drew my attention to Morgan was that he was reading a book whenever we required his services to cross the river. Reading for pleasure is a rare sight in Lukulu, Zambia! I decided to learn Morgan’s story by casually asking questions. So, during the next two trips I learned he had good Grade 12 results and was a twin. His twin was handicapped and his dream was to do special education. Morgan had the will to learn but not the means, nor the knowledge of how to source assistance at the right time and from whom. I asked him to go to the mission and read a notice, advertising Loreto bursaries. The rest would be up to him. He applied and was accepted for Mongu College of Education. Not only did he complete his studies and go on to teach within the Lukulu District but he is currently fulfilling his dream and doing a degree by distance learning in special education. He has since married and assisted his wife to complete primary teaching training. They have four children. His life and that of his family, are completely transformed because he got the opportunity to get an education and to be a teacher!

Living through a pandemic peels the layers off our social structures exposing both the best and the

worst. There is no doubt that we now have a more heightened sense of the sheer fragility of our lives and the necessity of community. Every media outlet tells stories of heroism, kindness and sheer practical goodness. The Government, for the most part, makes generous provision for those without work and accommodation.

But there is a downside – missing from any equation of generosity are asylum seekers, migrant workers and overseas students. Told, in no uncertain terms to “go home” if unable to provide for themselves, they are left without jobs or money. Threatened with homelessness and starvation they become totally dependent on not-for-profit organisations for support.

The House of Welcome is one such organisation. Under the auspices of St Francis Social Services, the House of Welcome, a centre in Western Sydney, provides a range of services for asylum seekers and is living proof that from “little things, big things grow”. Now an organisation with nine staff and an amazing band of volunteers, it came into being twenty years ago when a small ecumenical group gathered in Villawood to see how they could respond to the plight of asylum seekers released from Villawood Detention Centre. From its very beginning in a disused butcher’s shop in Carramar, the House of Welcome has depended on support from religious organisations and generous donors.

MWIA has, for some years, provided support for the House of Welcome, firstly by funding its employment program for asylum seekers, Work and Welcome and, in more recent times, the coordinator of

the foodbank. The clients of the House of Welcome are rostered to come every fortnight to collect essential supplies to feed their families. One of the clients is Ada (not her real name), a single mother of five children living in House of Welcome accommodation, attempting to feed, encourage and home school her primary school children, with little support other than the House of Welcome.

The House of Welcome has a developed a strong relationship with the staff and students of Loreto Normanhurst. Five or more Work and Welcome job seekers have found employment in the school and, with the onset of the pandemic, the staff and students of Loreto Normanhurst responded generously providing carloads of goods and toiletries for the foodbank.

The women, men and children who come to the House of Welcome live, acutely and continuously, some of the insecurity many of us are experiencing during the pandemic, they need not only food and shelter but a voice which calls out for justice and compassion.

Welcoming All

Srs Janet Palafox ibvm and Libby Rogerson ibvm delivering goods collected by the staff of Loreto Normanhurst to the House of Welcome.

Above: Mboma Mbuyu ‘Morgan’ teaching his class at Namayula School.

~ by Sr Libby Rogerson ibvm

One of the gifts of living in Africa is the gift of a simpler lifestyle

Above Image: Sr Elizabeth Donnan ibvm in a community school in Zambia.

Loreto Sister Pat Hanvey with baby Sikota at

eight months of age

Children sit at new desks in Mulumbu Community School, Zambia

Sustain June 2020 Mary Ward International Australia12 13

S r Elizabeth Donnan currently serves alongside Sr Pat Hanvey and Sr Lenah Mambo in MWIA education and health projects in Zambia. Globally the Loreto Sisters often establish our MWIA projects, facilitate them and are the key to their success.

IN THE BEGINNINGI am inspired and motivated by issues around justice,

simplicity and integrity. These are certainly Mary Ward values but these values were first lived by Jesus. In my years of teaching in Australian Loreto schools, I was encouraged by our evolving emphasis on the value of justice. At the same time, I was growing uneasy at the contradictions in my life. The affluent lifestyle I lived was at odds with the value of justice.

In 1988, aged 44, came my first time out of Australia and what an introduction to the wider world! I spent 6 months in Kenya. What struck me forcibly at that time was the value Kenyans put on their extended families, the Ubuntu factor that all humanity is connected – ‘I am because we are ‘. Secondly, I was struck by the fact that mothers carried their babies on their backs. The babies developed a sense of self and family. I saw first-hand the struggles of those forced to live in poverty. A seed was planted and in 1997 I transferred to a Loreto community in a South African township teaching in a government school. In 2006, I moved to Zambia with Sister Pat Hanvey and Sister Lenah Mambo joined us in 2016.

One of the gifts of living in Africa is the gift of a simpler lifestyle. Somehow there is a greater integrity between what I say and do. Personally, working through education to make a small contribution to bring about a more equitable society in Lukulu provides this balance.

A DAY IN MY LIFE The people of Lukulu incredibly survive against the

odds. Most are subsistence farmers or fishermen. Food security is the greatest challenge. There are insufficient primary schools for all the children in the district. Village communities see the need for education, and start what are called community schools, with voluntary, untrained, literate members of their communities as teachers. These schools do an amazing job with very limited resources and are an acknowledged and important part of the Zambian educational landscape. They are slowly being integrated into the mainstream education system. My main ministry is supporting the 44 existing rural primary community schools and their teachers.

No two days are the same. People knock at our back door requesting support for their community school. Some have walked for two days, just to be able to get the basic needs for their classrooms.

Requests can be simple like stationery and chalk, for others they can include blackboards, desks, chairs, tables and bookshelves. Some come with oxcarts to transport the bulky items. We usually meet seated outside in a circle on low hide covered stools. Often there is more than one group waiting. We communicate across four languages, and the crowd assists in translating. Meetings are full of laughter with much news exchanged! Sometimes at the end of meetings I transport furniture to awaiting canoes on the Zambezi River.

Living in Africa has been a gift!~ an interview with Sr Elizabeth Donnan ibvm by Michelle Gale

The Call to Africa

What do you love most about what you do?It is an absolute privilege to work at the grass

roots with people. I like working with people who help themselves. The large numbers of volunteer village teachers and volunteer primary health workers is mind boggling. They creatively work out how they can use their limited resources and personnel for the betterment of their communities. I have never seen a community school fail. In 15 years, it has brought me great delight to see many community schools progress to mainstream schools with trained government paid teachers.

Do you have a special message for all our MWIA supporters?

I want to thank you for uplifting the lives of the people of Lukulu in so many different projects, and particularly, for saving the lives of vulnerable babies through the formula milk program. I am very conscious of MWIA’s support through the Australian Loreto school communities. The work we do is impossible without the support of MWIA. I have been given a gift to live like I do and I am truly thankful.

MWIA RESPONSE Dear Sister Elizabeth, we are truly thankful for what you do, serving alongside Sister Pat Hanvey and

Sister Lenah Mambo saving the lives of the world’s most vulnerable children. In partnership with you and our supporters, we change lives together.

Sustain June 2020 Mary Ward International Australia1514

This was the mantra stated at the first meeting of Non-Government Organisations

(NGOs) I attended shortly after arriving in New York for my United Nations internship in October 2019. Learning the importance of advocacy, participation and collaboration to effectively challenge and change unjust structures was extremely important. Most members were religious organisations advocating on behalf of those who are invisible, especially the marginalised people with whom they work so that their voices, concerns, perspectives and experiences are heard and included. Because no one should be left behind.

Attending these meetings, the UN agency briefings and conferences helped me realise the importance of our work on the ground, especially among the most disadvantaged communities in various countries. Extensively, through the schools, local projects and advocacy work, we are contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (SDG).

The UN Secretary General declared SDG 2030 a blueprint for fair globalisation. The goals are comprehensive and interconnected. Our Governments have committed to it. SDG 2030 has the power to transform the lives of people, our society and the environment. Achieving these goals requires multilateral collaboration from all countries, by all sectors and by all global citizens.

The projects supported by MWIA are important contributors to the achievement of the SDGs within their countries and the world. We have seen the transformation of the lives of people and communities when they are given opportunities to discover and develop their unique gifts.

Loreto and CJ schools, like those in South Sudan, rural Timor-Leste and the brickfields in India, address the goal of Quality Education (SDG 4)

as do the MWIA supported tertiary scholarships in Zambia and Vietnam. Our education ministry also provides income-generating skills training in Peru, India and Kenya, further working towards this goal.

However, these initiatives have a positive ripple effect, contributing to realising other SDG goals such as SDG 1 (No Poverty); SDG 2 (Zero Hunger); SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being); SDG 5 (Gender Equality); SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth).

The Baby Milk program in Zambia, for example, is not only about ensuring babies are fed (SDG 2) but it is also about their health and well-being (SDG 3). Similarly, raising awareness among the women of India and Australia is not just about gender equality (SDG 5) but also about empowering them for more peaceful, just and strong institutions (SDG 16).

We are making some progress, especially in reducing extreme poverty and child mortality and increasing access to energy and decent work. Governments, businesses, civil societies and young people are taking action. However, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the sad reality is that we are not on track to achieving the SDGs by 2030.

The Global Sustainable Development Report 2019 found that inequality, particularly gender inequality, is persistent and prevalent in both developed and developing countries. Gender inequality reduces the opportunities and capabilities of women and girls exacerbating their poverty and contributing to intergenerational poverty and inequality.

The report identified the critical importance of quality education. The kind of education that provides the tools to expand knowledge and develop critical thinking, not just numeracy and literacy. We need education enabling reflection while empowering and inspiring learners

to become actors of change in their own lives, their communities and their countries.

A significant learning for me is the importance of being able to bring the voices of the marginalised to local, national and international levels of power. Our work at the UN is more effective if it is informed by the experiences of the people on the ground.

This year the UN turns 75 and begins the Decade of Action for achieving the SDGs.

The Secretary General calls young people and civil society to work together, to make our leaders accountable and advocate for national governments to deliver what they promised. Together, with the women, men and children in our network, let us ensure we are on the menu by being and bringing their voices to the table.

You can read more about the work of the Loreto Sisters at the UN here - www.ibvmunngo.org

on the table, you could be

~ By Sr Janet Palafox ibvm

“If you are not

on the menu.”

Sr Janet Palafox ibvm at the UN.

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The most vulnerable children need us now more than ever

Could provide MILK for one child under 6mths of age for 1 month in ZAMBIA

Could provide STATIONERY for 4 community schools in ZAMBIA

Could provide enough FOOD to feed 6 families for 1 month in INDIA

Could provide enough MASKS to protect 1300 villagers in TIMOR-LESTE$36 $100 $480 $1000